The invention relates generally to methods for treating powders and powders treated thereby.
Additive manufacturing technology, i.e., 3D printing technology, such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), direct metal laser melting (DMLM), selective laser melting (SLM), selective laser sintering (SLS), electron-beam melting (EBM) or direct deposition, enables the quick production of complex shaped three-dimensional parts directly from metal powder. Generally, the additive manufacturing process uses a bed of loose powder, and for making fine-featured parts and reducing surface roughness of produced parts, the flowing and/or spreading properties of the metal powders usually need to be improved.
Some approaches have been proposed to increase the flowability of a powder by dry blending the powder with a fluidization additive to produce a dry blended mixture. These methods introduce a relatively large amount of fluidization additives into the powder and thus may change the element formulation of the powder, which is undesirable when the element formulation is critical to the produced part.
Therefore, while some of the proposed approaches have general use in other conventional industries, it is desirable to provide in additive manufacturing new methods for treating powders and powders treated thereby.